Nationalism in threads (interesting)

[Tigran The Great]

What i have come to notice after years of reading Total War threads is that some nationalism does exist in them. It makes them infinitely more interesting to read. It makes the debates more interesting as well.

For example the people of Scottish decent are always pushing for the picts to be a playable faction. The Armenians are trying to make Armenia playable and they always make sure everybody knows Armenia once had a vast empire .The Greeks want several greek city states playable. People from country's that have nothing to do with Rome want to play as there ancestors

I always thought this phenomenon was interesting.

NOTE: this thread is not made to offend anybody in anyway.It is simply something i noticed and thought was interesting.

[Orlorin]

I agree, some people insist on the superiority or enlightenment of their ancestors 2000 years ago. This is often the source of the Roman v. Celt threads.

[boofhead]

I demand Australians appear in R2TW.

[Shocked]

I demand Australians appear in R2TW.

This^

[Petroniu]

Hmm, true, I've seen it too. I am not one of them though. But I do like to see my ancestors portrayed well and I criticize those who do it wrong. But that is normal. What you're saying is that people push for the faction that represents their ancestors. I usually push for the factions I like to play most. But it's an interesting thread you've started. I am curious to see other opinions on this. But this thread doesn't fit this forum and I think it will be moved, if not closed.

[Father Jack]

As an African Pygmy I am hugely offended by this thread and the general lack of attention we get in TW games.

[Petroniu]

As an African Pygmy I am hugely offended by this thread and the general lack of attention we get in TW games.

Sorry dude but the TW games don't cover your area. They are meant to cover the mainstream known history and the conflicts that it holds. But that doesn't stop you from modding something that gets the attention to you, does it?

[Akrotatos]

For example the people of Scottish decent are always pushing for the picts to be a playable faction. The Armenians are trying to make Armenia playable and they always make sure everybody knows Armenia once had a vast empire .The Greeks want several greek city states playable. People from country's that have nothing to do with Rome want to play as there ancestors

What strange is there with finding your ancestors (or the next best thing) more interesting to play? It's not like Indians demand a faction or Japanese...most people are Europeans and their countries influenced Rome one way or another

[TheSwordofRome]

What strange is there with finding your ancestors (or the next best thing) more interesting to play? It's not like Indians demand a faction or Japanese...most people are Europeans and their countries influenced Rome one way or another

I am demanding a Mauryan Empire Faction and europe is only one of 7 continents, so ya, not only europeans play games . What about the Parthians? They were not european and they were a major obstacle for the Romans. What about the Egyptians, they were not european..... India was a major trade post of the Roman empire, where do you think they got the tigers for the gladitorial games?. The Mauryan, Roman, and Chinese kings were called the sons of the sun. What about the Carthaginians and Numidians?

Jusy saying

I think Nationalism is good to a certain extent, It is great to be proud of who you are, and what country you live in, but using it to prejudice people is not cool

[issler]

That's not necessarily nationalism.
People tend to have more knowledge about their own countries' history. It's not far fetched to think they might find some simplifications absurd and unrealistic (most simplifications in RTW are tbh). The threads aren't due to nationalism necessarily, I think it's more about the fact that the # of factions is hard-coded, so that some factions always end up as rebels or over-simplified (i.e. Germania and Gauls in RTW vanilla, they weren't a political single unit back then). People usually know their history *wasn't quite like that*, but I think it's all due to the limited factions.

[Petroniu]

That's not necessarily nationalism.
People tend to have more knowledge about their own countries' history. It's not far fetched to think they might find some simplifications absurd and unrealistic (most simplifications in RTW are tbh). The threads aren't due to nationalism necessarily, I think it's more about the fact that the # of factions is hard-coded, so that some factions always end up as rebels or over-simplified (i.e. Germania and Gauls in RTW vanilla, they weren't a political single unit back then). People usually know their history *wasn't quite like that*, but I think it's all due to the limited factions.

Nationalism isn't bad anyways. If you like your country and you want to promote it there is nothing wrong with that. Radical or extreme nationalism is bad, very bad. That's when you think that your country and your country alone is good and the other are inferior and you can decide for and over them.

[Tigran The Great]

I 100% agree with that

[Orlorin]

Nationalism is bad when you like or respect your country simply because you live there, or because that is the norm, or because someone told you to. You should accurately evaluate your own government and people before supporting them, or endorsing their culture.

[Tigran The Great]

I agree with the nationalism being good but ultranationalism being bad statement . Without nationalism country's , cultures and languages would have died out

[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]

I notice that too, specially for threads about Celts, Germans and other "Barbarians". Some fans of Rome are really fast to speak of nationalism, racism ect. after some poster claim rightfull that "Barbarians" had also great civilisations and "Romanization" did not brought Civilization too them, they allready had it. If i wrote that the germans wanted to life in their own ways, like very other culture, i am really fast a nationalist because i am from germany. But first are the germans 2000 years ago not my ancestors and second i was born in Brandenburg were we have ethnological a large mix of Scandinavian (primary swedes), Slavic (former Abodrit population, Polish, Silesian and Bohemian and German groupes (Saxons), not to mention the later French immigrants.

I am patriot i like the landescape of my home, but nationalism is something entirely diffrent and even think about nationalism is a no-go in germany. A lot of careers ended in germany because people compare things with other things of the 3th Reich, where people of any other nation would laugh about. So it is really ridiciolus to speack about nationalism to a german...

[Paragon]

I agree with the nationalism being good but ultranationalism being bad statement . Without nationalism country's , cultures and languages would have died out

Kinda of nope, since what we call "nationalism" is barely even 200 years old.

For me, I think that nationalism is the belief that your country is slightly cooler than others because you were born in it. Does not make sense to me, but whatever, if it's a bit it's not that dangerous.

[Jester]

i think that s a bit silly though. chances are, someone who is born in Germany today is actually the descendant of some roman guys. and someone who is born in Italy has actually gaul ancestors...

there was so many movement, people spread all over the place, they went from north to south, from east to west, so many enslavements, abductions, rapes and whatnot


now, if we would talk about the Empire/Napoleon era that might be sth different, but from ancient times you just cant tell who your ancestors are

[TheSwordofRome]

Thats a good statement there You never know who your anscestors are.

[Tigran The Great]

I am defiantly guilty of nationalism on threads. I love playing as my ancestors(Armenia) in any game.
I don't know why but i just seem to enjoy the game more like that.
I'm sure many people like to play as there ancestors in games and there is nothing wrong with that.

how so?

[Orlorin]

Nazi Germany also had large socialist elements, are those also taboo in germany?

One may not say in their head, "I am german, german tribes are best." but they might be prone to a more romantic vision of the people who they see as their ancestors, or significant contributers to their culture.